Half-Blood Protection Camp
by HeyHeyHeyBigTimeRush
Summary: When Annabeth is forced to leave Camp Half-Blood for the summer, Chiron assigns her a camp which will hold 3 things; Hard work, new experiences and a sea-green eyed demigod named Percy Jackson... Rated T.
1. Camp Not-As-Cool-As-Camp-Half-Blood

**Hello! I literally only just finished the Percy Jackson series and this is my first ever Percabeth story. Please go easy on me!**

* * *

At times of struggle, my father would always use the carefully worded phrase "_When life hands you lemons_...yatta yatta, blah blah blah." But as of today, I would like to write a strongly worded letter of complaint to whoever decided upon this saying and insist that they correct it;

"When life hands you lemons, cut them in half and squeeze the juice in your eyes because that's what life will do after a while anyway."

Okay so first of all, Camp Half-Blood is out of question for me this summer. No, the camp isn't in danger and no, I didn't get kicked out...well, I technically did. But not for breaking the rules or anything. According to Chiron, a war has been ignited between the gods again (Shocker, I know.) Athena - oops sorry, _mommy _- got into a bit of a debate with Hera and Aphrodite.

Apparently, when Peleus and Thetis got married, all the gods and goddesses were invited except Eris. So Eris got pretty ticked off and decided she would cause trouble between the goddesses for revenge. She tossed a golden apple into the middle of the wedding with "To the fairest" written on it, so naturally, Athena, Aphrodite and Hera all started arguing over who was the prettiest and to put it simply; it didn't end well.

So camp wouldn't be safe for the Athena cabin or the Aphrodite cabin, fights were bound to happen, the goddesses have it in for us basically and I'm sure Hera wouldn't rest until she saw the whole Athena cabin covered in cow poop in the depths of Tartarus. Some may have decided to stay this summer, but Chiron insisted that I kept away, at least until things died down.

And that is why I'm standing on a farm in the middle of nowhere, my hair damp from the rain and mud all over my jeans. This would be my camp this year, some old couple I'd never even met had offered rooms for me, and like 12 other half-bloods that were in danger - as long as we all helped out during the week and shared our rooms with a ridiculous number of demigods.

THANKS MOM!

I trudged over to the big old house, I looked like a drowned rat. After three harsh knocks to the wooden door, it swung open, revealing a small old woman with white hair in a bun and blue eyes, her smile was so warm that I instantly felt bad for resenting this place. "Oh, dear! You must be freezing!" She exclaimed as she pulled me inside.

To say the house was cozy was an understatement. Picture you grandparent's living room and a fireplace, now picture it at Christmas, now times that by a thousand and you'll get the idea. It just felt homely.

There were half-bloods sat in front of the TV, the older ones on the sofa and the youngest sat crossed legged on the floor. Most of them weren't my age, but I assumed that's because most demigods my age would be spending their summer doing something - I dunno, cool?

"You must be Annabeth, my name is Alison." The old lady said softly as she wrapped a blanket around my shoulders. This caught the attention of the kids in the living room and they ripped their eyes from the television long enough to take a good judgmental look at me.

I noticed someone from the Aphrodite cabin, he awkwardly waved and I returned a smile.

After a moment of silence, I decided that I would make 0 friends this summer as I regarded their blank expressions. I wasn't cute or funny or interesting, I was just another person they'd have to squeeze into their already tiny room.

"Welcome to the farm, uh, Annabeth." Someone said kinda shyly.

I looked down to see a boy - about my age - sat on the floor with all the younger kids, I hadn't noticed him until now, which was surprising been as he had sea green eyes and a pearly white smile.

"Um, thanks." I said politely, feeling sort of self conscious now that a cute boy was looking at me, not to mention my wet hair and probably see-through shirt (I was thankful for the blanket at this point.) I looked a mess, and he looked...well.

The boy kind of smirked and looked away after a little while, which was a good thing, I suppose.

"Come on now dear, better get you in some dry clothes. We've all got a long day ahead of us tomorrow!" Alison cooed.

The whole room erupted with _UGHHHH's _and _OHH MYY GODSSSS's, _which just filled me to the brim with motivation and encouragement.

Not only would tomorrow be an evidently long and boring day, but this would be a long and boring summer. No Camp Half-Blood, no Thalia and no training. Great.

* * *

**Sorry if you thought this chapter was short and boring but I can't just jump straight into the Percabeth, there's more of that to come later ;). Please review guys! x**


	2. I encounter a Seaweed Brain

**A/N: Correct me if anything I write in inaccurate, I'm pretty new to the whole Greek Mythology thing in the sense that I've never really paid much attention to it before these books.**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter and pleeeaaasseee review :)x**

* * *

So, when I woke up the next morning, I felt kind of grumpy and had a pretty bad headache. To be fair to Alison and Richard (The husband I mentioned), the rooms weren't too shabby. There were 12 campers and 3 rooms, excluding the room that Alison and Richard shared. The bunks were comfortable and there was probably more space than there was back at the Athena cabin...

Yet I still felt so out of place. My roommates were okay. I had a nine year old girl named Hollie Rodriquez, she had fiery red hair and freckles dotted on her nose. There was also Kelsien Samartia, the 14 year old who was waaaay too interested in her nails. She was pretty, but I could tell a lot of it was down to makeup. And finally, Bianca Di Angelo. She was sweet, but she didn't seem to want to talk to anyone that much other than her brother, Nico. He was in one of the other rooms.

"Annabeth, it's 8:30! We gotta get up!" Bianca's voice interrupted my sleep.

With my eyes still closed, I made a real attractive sound like "NNhhghrrrmmm" and dragged myself out of bed. After stretching and moaning and grumbling, Bianca threw an old T-shirt and pair of jeans at me and told me to meet her downstairs in ten minutes.

"What are the baggy clothes for?" I asked as she reached the door. She watched me examine the white T-shirt that must have been 5 sizes too big and stifled a laugh. "Trust me, if you care about the well-being of your clothes at all, you'll wear that T-shirt for this job." And with that, she picked up a bandanna from the bedside table and closed the door behind her.

I didn't care too much about wearing the ugly outfit, I just wondered who'd worn it in the past whilst being stuck here for the summer.

I kind of brushed my hair and let it lie on my shoulders instead of tying it up for once, after cleaning my teeth, I trotted downstairs to see everyone sat around a huge circle table in the kitchen. There seemed to be more kids than I'd remembered, probably because some had gotten an early night before my grand entrance. But I certainly didn't recall the cyclops that sat comfortably wedged next to the cute green-eye boy, his head almost touching the ceiling.

I decided that maybe I wanted to sit next to the familiar boy from the Aphrodite cabin, he really was attractive (duh) with blond hair and blue eyes, but I wasn't sure if I could ever _really _be attracted to someone who was so neat and perfect, not one speck of flaw on his face, beautiful people can be boring to look at if you ask me.

"Hey." I said simply as I took the empty seat next to him. He turned and smiled sweetly, his teeth perfectly white. "Hello." He replied. I kind of blushed, I didn't mean to, it just happened.

I felt a pair of eyes on me and looked up to see the cute boy watching me, he was also wearing an over sized T-shirt, which actually kind of sucked because he managed to look really adorable in baggy shirts and I on the other hand, resembled a potato. The giant next to him glanced at me with his big eye, examining my hair like it was the most magical thing he'd ever seen. He gave a toothy, yellow smile and although I had a bad history with Cyclopes, I knew this one was just a big kid and I couldn't help but smile back at him.

The breakfast was rather large, it felt kind of weird eating around a bunch of Half-Bloods and not having to offer any of the food to the gods. But I guess I can't complain about having a full plate of bacon to myself. I tried to eat in silence and listen to what everyone else had to say, but everyone spoke at once and the room got extremely loud.

I tried conversing with the Aphrodite boy. He said his name was Alexerin, he told me he refused to wear the work outfits and something about his hair that I've forgotten already, and the conversation was over.

"Alright, campers!" Richard walked in to the kitchen, wearing a plaid shirt and dirty jeans, the noise died down immediately.

"As you know, we have a lot of work today. Me and Alison decided we're going to be putting you into groups..."

The volume increased again as everyone grabbed a friend, I sat frozen in my seat.

"THAT," Richard cut everyone's sentence short again. "means, WE'RE deciding who's in which group, alright?" He explained calmly.

Everyone sort of sighed and grumbled, I figured they'd be doing that a lot this summer.

Alison began pairing people up and gathering kids of similar talents to their suited jobs, I couldn't understand how she knew so much about all of us, but I admired her for it.

After most of the campers made their way outside with their groups, grumbling and sighing in the process, Alison turned to the raven haired boy that I hadn't realized I'd been staring at.

"Perseus Jackson," She gave the cute boy a name. "I'm assigning you and Annabeth Chase to clean the barn, been as you were so thorough last time."

Perseus blew up his cheeks and sighed, I hoped I didn't have anything to do with his exasperation. "Yes Ma'am." He said half-heartedly. Perseus held the door open for me and I mumbled a 'Thank you'. As we walked up the grassy hill, I felt nervous and uncomfortable just being near him, I had very little experience with boys and I assumed his knowledge of females was limited as his first sentence was;

"Hot day, huh?"

I nodded and put my hands in my pockets/bottomless pits. Perseus looked me up and down, smirking at the sleeves on my shirt which fell right down to my elbows.

"Hey, I didn't _choose_ the outfit!" I joked. He grinned and looked away. "I like it." He said simply, which made my ears heat up a little. "Are you serious?" I raised an eyebrow at him. He shrugged with that smirk of his, I could somehow see that smirk getting on my last nerve one of these days, he wasn't irritating me or anything, but I knew he would eventually - that smile was hypnotic - just like the big green pools on either side of his face that threatened to drown anyone who dares to look into them.

"So, is that big kid with one eye your friend?" I asked, making conversation.

Perseus' expression stiffened and he seemed offended. "Of course he is. Why wouldn't he be? Do you have a problem with him because he's a cyclops or something?" He defended.

I held my hands up, blood rushing to my cheeks. "No-no-no, I didn't mean it like- I was just wondering... He seems really sweet."

Perseus seemed to relax and an embarrassed smile formed on his lips again. I felt irritated at the fact that he just made me feel bad about something I hadn't even done. And further more, did he really just assume I would judge someone on their appearance? The _nerve!_

"Sorry, I just...I just thought- never mind. He's my younger brother, Tyson." He began. I wasn't that shocked, I guess I was too busy thinking about the way Perseus had just accused me of stereotyping, I mean, who did he think he was? "We're sons of Poseidon, Camp Half-Blood said they wouldn't accept Tyson as a camper because, well, you know... anyway, I couldn't leave without him and I couldn't stay at home all summer either, what with all the monsters waiting for a fresh batch of Percy Burgers."

_Oh, he preferred_ Percy.

"So you decided to spend your summer at this haven!" I added sarcastically.

We reached the barn and the smell of manure filled my nostrils immediately. Percy noticed my expression and smirked, he glanced at the bottom of the hill to see if anyone was watching and took a step closer to me. "Don't worry," He mumbled. "I have a method."

I rolled my eyes but before I could comment, he pulled a handful of tiny shells out of his huge pocket.

"What are you doing?" I asked. slightly agitated. Percy didn't respond, he just threw the shells into the barn, on the piles of (there's no other way to put it) horse poop. At first, nothing happened and I was about ready to make a sarcastic remark when suddenly, a gush of water exploded from the ground, then another and another, removing the dirt in an instant. I gasped in surprise, Percy looked pleased with himself as we watched the left over liquid magically trail out of the barn and either; sink into the earth or stream down the hill into the river.

"How did you do that?" I asked, dumbfounded as I stared at the spotless barn. Percy shrugged with that ever present smirk. "I learned a few tricks on a quest once, no big deal." But I could tell he wanted me to think it was a big deal, and he clearly thought it himself too.

"So," He said, turning to me and plopping his butt down on the grass. "Why are you here?" He questioned. I sat in front of him, he did after all, manage to lift at least an hour of work off of our shoulders, so I couldn't hold too many grudges against him. "I'm a daughter of Athena."

"Got it." He said instantly.

I raised an eyebrow. "You know about the fight?"

"Obviously. Everyone knows. Hey so, how old are you? No wait, I'll tell you my age first. I'm 16...Oh- and my full name is Percy Jackson, I don't like it when people call me Perseus...and I like the color blue." He rambled on, I could almost smell the ADHD radiating off of this kid.

"Are you finished?" I asked, almost rudely.

Percy nodded.

"Then my name is Annabeth Chase, I'm also sixteen."

"Sweet."

I felt my cheeks heating up as he observed me once again, I didn't like it. It made me feel uncomfortable about myself, and Athena kids should know that the opposite sex shouldn't have such a ridiculous affect on us. But since Luke, I've always been kind of bashful...

"Have you made any friends yet?" He asked after a moment of silence. I sighed and looked at my shoes. "I tried, but Alexerin only cares about his appearance and Bianca is a little...distant?" Percy nodded as though he understood, but I doubt that he did, a boy like him definitely wouldn't have any problems making friends with people, he was attractive and evidently; powerful.

Percy Jackson opened his mouth to say something but his sentence was cut short by a loud cyclops running up the hill effortlessly, I'd say he made it up here in about 4 steps. "Brother!" He called, his hands waving frantically as he ran towards us.

"What's wrong, man?" Percy asked casually, searching his brother's terrified face. "It's the other kids! There's a fight!" Tyson exclaimed.


	3. Nico gives a warm welcome

**Why am I updating twice in one day? Because I have nothing better to do.**

**Thanks for the follows and favorites, but I really would like to know what you all think so far. Enjoy! x**

* * *

Me and Percy bolted down the hill, following his gigantic brother. I tried to ignore the surprise in the back of my mind that Percy and Tyson were actually related. Tyson was great and everything (from what I knew so far) but how could a cyclops be related to someone as delicious as Percy Jackson? It just didn't make any sense.

We reached the back of the house, where the fight had apparently started. "Over there!" Tyson squealed, he pointed a huge finger towards two figures which were fighting with swords and shields, as we got closer I determined that they were both male, and that they both kind of sucked at sword fighting.

Percy ran towards them immediately, whipping out a pen which turned into a beautiful sword in an instance. I didn't even bother questioning it, the kid had moves, I had to learn to expect that from him.

"Nico!" He screamed, grabbing the slightly shorter boy and pushing him away from his opponent. "What's your problem?" Percy challenged the mysterious face before him. Nico crawled away, relieved to have been withdrawn from the battle. The boy only stared for a moment, not moving a muscle. Was it wrong of me to use the time to notice his features? Well, I did it anyway.

He had chestnut hair which was short and settled just above his eyebrows, his eyelashes were notably long and his shoulders were broad. He seemed kinda...familiar. I was sure I'd seen him before. After what felt like an hour of silence, the boy dropped his sword and raised his arms.

"Look, I just climbed over the gate and that crazy kid charged at me with his sword!" The boy explained, his voice much softer than I'd imagined.

"You were trespassing!" Nico shouted furiously. Percy pushed him back a little and whispered something in his left ear.

Alison came running into the back yard, her face painted with concern. "What on earth..." She trailed off, staring at the sword in Percy's hand.

"Ma'am," The random boy stepped forward. "This is a camp for Half-Bloods in danger, correct?"

Alison nodded, clearly as confused as the rest of us. "Are there any rooms left?" He asked sheepishly. Alison sighed and drooped her shoulders. "You're supposed to call and book your place in advance!" She exclaimed. The boy bit his bottom lip. "I-I couldn't because well, I ran away and this...this was the first place I found." His hands trembled and I realized where I'd seen him before.

"You're from the Hermes cabin aren't you? You were sent on a quest not too long ago," I piped up. The boy turned to me, his eyes sparkling, I noticed Percy studying him, clutching his pen-sword firmly. "Yes, my name is Ashton...I-I couldn't complete my quest, s-so I cannot return to Camp-Half-Blood, I'm too ashamed." He mumbled, bowing his head. I wanted him to remind me of what the quest was, but I could see that he didn't want to talk about it.

Alison put an arm around his shoulder. "Come, young man, I'm sure we can make room." She said softly as she walked him back over to the house. Percy sighed and walked back over to me.

"Don't trust that boy." He said bluntly.

"Why?"

"I don't know... just weird vibes. There's something about him that I don't like, Annabeth." He muttered, glaring at Ashton as he and Alison entered the house, his body looked frail and worn out, he must have been tired and hungry, I couldn't help but feel bad for him. "Brother," Tyson grabbed Percy's shirt. "Who is this?" He asked, gesturing towards me.

"Oh, that's Annabeth." Percy said absently. Tyson reached out to touch my hair and I stepped back a little, giggling as Percy swatted Tyson's hand away for me. "You're real pretty Annabeth." Tyson mused, his eyelid drooping down. I blushed. "Thank you, Tyson." I laughed when he clapped his hands together excitedly. "Will you be my friend?" Tyson squealed. I nodded and returned his excitement. "Well, of course I will!"

Percy was looking at me weirdly, his eyes scanning over my features, I blushed again. "Why are you looking at me like that?" I blurted out.

Percy shrugged. "Like what?" and continued staring at my nose and then my dimples and then my eyes. "Like _that._" I exclaimed, trying to cover my embarrassment.

Percy shuffled on his feet and I saw his cheeks turn pink. "I don't know? I just sorta- I just think you're cute, is that such a crime?"

Before I could say anything stupid, forget my own name or like, throw up a rainbow, Alison re-appeared from the house.

"I'm very sorry about that little interruption everyone, but there is still work to be done!" She announced to the yard full of people. "Please, return to your work and I'll cook up something delicious for lunch."

Percy nodded in the direction of the hill and we both made our way back up there, I pretended like I'd forgotten about him calling me cute and asked him something really clever like; "So, do you like movies?"

He shrugged. "I guess. I like horror movies, it's kind of hilarious to see what mortals consider as 'scary', if they saw half the monsters I've seen, Paranormal Activity would be like an after school special." He chuckled. I couldn't decide whether his laugh was sexy or cute? Maybe both. Yes, definitely both. _Oh gods! Shut up, Annabeth!_

We parked our butts in the same place as last time. "So, your mom's Athena...what about your dad? Why couldn't you stay with him this summer? ...If you don't mind me asking." I glared at Perseus Jackson and considered punching him in the face, but for some reason, I didn't.

"It's complicated, we don't get along too well... he's not a bad person, I just can't be close to him, not with his other family and all..." I sighed. Percy nodded, his eyes apologetic. I changed the subject as quickly as possible. "What about you, is your mom nice?"

Percy's eyes lit up, a grin poking at his cheek. "My mom's the best. She cooks me blue food for dinner and she's so cool about the whole Demigod thing, she can see through the mist and stuff." He explained happily.

"Momma's boy." I snorted.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Weirdo."

"Seaweed brain."

His eyebrows raised. "Seaweed brain?" He demanded. "Really?"

We spent a long time just talking, getting to know each other a little better. Percy told me about his step dad, Paul Blofis and his best friend, Grover. I told him how I'd always loved architecture and how one day I'd want build something so beautiful, something that would last forever. We talked about what kind of music we liked, Percy asked me what my favorite song was and I told him it was In An Airplane Over The Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, I asked him if he'd ever heard it before, he said that he hadn't. His taste in music was pretty standard, but it wasn't terrible, I think he just needed a little guidance. We also exchanged stories about things we found funny or weird, Percy told me about when Grover chased a tree nymph all around strawberry fields. I felt like we could talk for hours, but before we knew it; it was lunch time.

"I had a nice morning." Percy stated as he got up from his sitting position. "Me too. Thanks for uh, cleaning the stable so fast." I noted.

Percy shrugged. "No big deal."

I began to walk towards the house when Percy grabbed my arm and stopped me. "I-uh, I know a great steak house, it's not too far from here." He scratched the back of his neck as he spoke. "Do you um...are you free on Friday?"

I felt my stomach do a double somersault. "Yeah, I mean, after all the work and stuff..." I noticed Percy was still holding my arm, but gently now, I don't think he even realized his fingers were gently running down my skin, near where my hand was.

"Right, so um, do you- would it... Maybe I could take you out for dinner?" He stuttered nervously.

I smiled in satisfaction and watched as his face began to resemble a tomato. "Yeah, maybe." I mumbled, before removing my arm from his grasp and heading over to the house.


	4. Asking out a wise girl

**A/N: Did I mention that I have yet to read the spin-offs? I'm saving them for the next school break been as I read the others so quickly and I want to take my time with the next books. So that's why I won't be mentioning any of the recent characters, I'm only aware of the characters in the first five books. **

**Enjoy.**

* * *

**Percy**

It's been 5 days since Annabeth joined camp, and she's already driving me insane.

I mean, one minute she's fine and I just want to listen to her stories and the sound of her laugh and the way her nose scrunches up when she giggles, then the next minute she'll throw a sarcastic comment or roll her eyes at me or go and flirt with that Aphrodite kid!

And don't even get me started on Ashton. That slime ball. He got put in my room on an extra bed, so now the room is so cramped and uncomfortable. There's 5 of us; Me, Nico, Tyson, Alexerin and Asshole Ashton. Alison said it was important that all the rooms are categorized in age ranges and gender, but I respectfully disagree as Ashton acts like a 5 year old.

It all started on Monday night, we all got into our beds, I said goodnight to Nico and Tyson and wrapped myself in my blanket. It had been a long day, but I had Annabeth to think about, thinking about her made my stomach tie in knots a little bit, it was weird.

"Percy?" Someone whispered from across the room. I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes, realizing that everyone was still awake, accept Tyson, who was snoring as usual. "What?" I asked, giving Ashton a harsh glare. He held his hands up in defense and the others laughed into their pillows.

"Is that hot blond girl your girlfriend?" He hissed.

I felt my cheeks heating up. "No." I whispered firmly, remembering that just a couple of hours ago I was stood in front of him with a sword and could of easily sliced him in half.

"Sooo...can I call dibs?" He asked sheepishly.

_Dibs? What a gentleman, I'm sure Annabeth would jump at the chance of dating someone who calls 'dibs' on a girl._

"Um, no?" I said louder than I intended. Ashton's eyebrows raised in surprise, as though he couldn't believe I actually stood my ground, that infuriated me further, at least _I _completed my quests, he wasn't even a hero. How could he assume I'd be intimidated by _him?_

"Why not?"

"Because, well, you just can't, alright? I only met her today and even _I_ know more about her than you...y-you can't just wanna date someone because you think they're hot! She's not _just_ hot okay? She's also kind of irritating and as much as I hate to admit it, she's really smart. And she's got great taste in music too, she listens to this band called-"

"Percy!" Ashton interrupted.

"What?"

"She's just a chick!" He exclaimed, dumbfounded.

Look, I'm not one of those guys who holds grudges, but after that I just wanted to punch the guy every time I saw him. It wasn't just the fact that he said it about Annabeth, he was talking about women in general, how he had no respect for females at all, that pissed me off.

At breakfast yesterday, I was going to sit next to Annabeth, since she seemed like she was in a good mood an all, but Ashton stole my seat and I had to listen while he chatted her up all morning. His lines were dumb, his face was dumb everything about him was dumb. Annabeth was supposed to be intelligent, but she was actually falling for it.

_Oh, Annabeth, you have such pretty eyes!_

Barf.

But today, I wasn't going to let it happen, me and Annabeth had plans, Ashton would NOT mess that up. Our jobs this morning were a little more advance, I got paired with Nico and to my dismay, Annabeth got paired with Alexerin. We had to collect the eggs from the hen, which seemed pretty simple at first...until one of the chickens opened his beak and politely informed us that it was capable of breathing fire. But I won't go into that, let's just say Nico almost lost an eyebrow and I no longer have chest hair.

I think Alexerin and Annabeth spent the morning milking the cattle, which was a concept that I always found gross (The udders freak me out) but I guess I wouldn't mind it so much if Annabeth was on my team. I wondered if her and Alexerin told each other stories like me and her did when we were partners, I hoped not.

The day was quite uneventful (Minus the deadly chickens). The jobs were fairly simple and we ate lunch in the space of 10 minutes. I tried to have a conversation with Annabeth but Tyson kept distracting me, plus she seemed pretty busy talking to Alexerin and Bianca

So when it finally came to 5:00pm, I asked Richard if it would be cool for me and Annabeth to leave camp for a couple of hours. It took a lot of convincing and a back-up argument from Alison which mainly consisted of "Anything for love!" and "We were kids once too, Richard." I just kind of went along with it all, ignoring the word _LOVE _until Richard reluctantly granted permission and sternly declared that I shouldn't be back any later than 9:30pm.

Next thing to do; Remind Annabeth. I knew all the kids were in the living room watching TV, so I went to look for her in there. "Any of you guys seen Annabeth?" I asked the room of people as I opened the door, I got a few blank stares until Bianca finally spoke up. "She's upstairs."

"Thanks." I ignored the glare that Ashton gave me, well...I say _ignored _but what I really did was bask in the fact that even though he called dibs, I was the one going on a da- ...social event with Annabeth.

I ran up the stairs and determined which room Annabeth was staying in, the door was covered with Mini Mouse stickers and blue crayon - I remembered Annabeth mentioning her nine year old roommate. I was nervous all of a sudden, maybe I didn't even want to do this? What _was _I doing? I didn't know anything about girls! Especially not the confusing girls like Annabeth! _Oh gods, Percy, you really are a seaweed brain. _

Before I could turn on my heal and forget the whole stupid idea, the door swung open, revealing Annabeth in an over sized T-shirt and pajama shorts. When she stepped back and I saw the blue ink on her cheek, the book under her arm and the little pieces of hair that escaped from her pony tail, I remembered why I wanted to do this in the first place.

"Percy." She said, her eyebrow raising.

"Hey." I leaned on the door frame, attempting to look cool, but I don't think it worked. "Um, you've got pen on your face." _Smooth. _

Annabeth turned away from me and rubbed frantically at her cheek, a smile crept on my face as I watched her, I'll admit that she was cute. She stopped wiping her cheek and turned to face me again. "Is it gone?" She asked. I could still see a tiny smudge so on instinct, I slowly lifted my hand towards the blue mark and everything went deadly silent, I bet you could hear a fly fart if we stayed there long enough. With caution, I rested my fingers around her cheek, near her ear and I gently swiped my thumb across the blue stain, her skin felt so soft and her hair brushed against my hand. I felt like everything was in slow motion, my skin felt on fire and I concentrated on the curls of hair that had fallen, not wanting to look at her face because if I did, I'd feel embarrassed.

"There." I said, removing my hand, my voice sounding softer and quieter than I'd expected.

"Thanks." Annabeth replied distantly her eyes searching my face for something. I coughed awkwardly and stepped back. "So, um...we still on for tonight?" I popped the big question, my heart pounding violently against my chest.

Annabeth seemed too busy collecting herself before my last sentence actually sunk in and she jumped. "Oh my gods! I forgot all about it Percy, I'm so sorry."

I chuckled and put my hands in my pockets. "That's why I came to remind you early, wise girl. It's 5:30 now, I was planning on taking you out at like, seven. So, unless you're gonna stand me up, I might suggest you get your butt into whatever clothes you want to wear and meet me on the porch as soon as you're ready." I don't know where this surge of confidence came from, but I liked it and gave myself a mental pat on the back.

Annabeth bit her bottom lip before pushing me away from her door. "This better be worth it, Seaweed Brain." She grinned and the door shut before I could promise her that it _would_ be worth it.


End file.
